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Church Marketing Blog

Church marketing personnel need to be up-to-date with the latest church marketing strategies and resources to successfully implement the church / parish marketing plan. This church marketing blog enables church marketing personnel to engage in blog discussions relating to the church marketing issues of today. The 'Church Marketing Manual for the Digital Age (2nd ed)', 2011, by Bryan Foster, forms the basis for most of these blog posts.

A successful church and parish marketing plan and budget will need to incorporate most of the top ten free church marketing strategies if it is to be successful. The top 10 strategies can be free, or at least relatively inexpensive, depending on the church / parish’s present arrangements.

By effectively using the media and the church / parish website, there should be little expense activating these top 10 strategies, especially when the digital option is the primary method used, instead of hardcopies. If it can assumed that the parish has a website, which can be managed by the parish personnel, as well as a front signboard and a good digital camera, then these strategies can be implemented for free or little expense.

The first strategy is in itself free, yet is also reliant upon a number of other key strategies to be implemented successfully – ‘Word of Mouth’.

The number 1 strategy, ‘Word of Mouth’, is dependent on those espousing various views about the church / parish being well informed. To do this, the next 9 strategies have an important role to play.

The church / parish needs:

• to have a high quality liturgical, prayerful and pastoral life, along with an openness to meet the needs of all parishioners
• acknowledgement of the place of social media in today’s digital world
• an easy to use professional website
• the ability to engage the local media so that the good stories are told to the whole community, and even the negative stories being told with the church's’s professional approach for solutions being seen in a positive light,
• openness to various visits to the parish
• the acceptance of the place of the digital flyers and newsletters.

Conclusion

Free key strategies are often the best approaches to marketing your church / parish. When there is a professional website and the parish community has a positive attitude toward the parish and what it offers, along with what the digital age can offer, then a free, or relatively inexpensive, church / parish marketing plan is possible. This approach can also work when the attitude of the community is not as high – however, there may need to be a need for various forms of paid advertising to counteract such negativity. The best church / parish marketing plan would incorporate most of the free top 10 strategies for marketing your church or parish.

The 'Top 10 Free (or Inexpensive) Church and Parish Marketing Strategies' blog post written by Bryan Foster, author of Church Marketing Manual for the Digital Age (2nd ed),
- the paperback and ebook manual for Church communications and marketing
personnel - 304 pages of easy to read and implement summarized
points, which allow for a considerably large number of quality stategies and examples to be
detailed
and
available for church marketing personnel - with copyright
remaining GDPL. Book available from Amazon.com and Createspace.com and all good internet bookstores.

Comments

The Church Newsletter is often the best regular form of information-giving to parishioners. The standard paper newsletter still has its place, however there is a growing interest in either: the e-newsletter (sent out via email) or the i-newsletter (placed on the church internet website) or both, in this digital age. Every church marketing plan needs to incorporate this essential church marketing strategy.

e-Newsletter / i-Newsletter + Newsletter Essential

Both e-newsletter or i-newsletter will add to the target readership. Not only would it appeal to the internet / email savvy, it also becomes available to the non-weekly church attendee, the ill and for those away from the parish for varying lengths of time for innumerable reasons. That is, it is available for anyone requesting an email out from the church or to have the option of reading it on the parish website.

Supplement these with the regular hardcopy available from the church for those in attendance or on a mail-out list and interested, or not interested in an e/i-newsletter, and the target base should be considerably more.

This section within the 'Church Marketing - Internet Applications with Samples and Instructions' chapter will concentrate on the e-Newsletter / i-Newsletter. The hardcopy Newsletter will also be covered in the ‘Church Marketing: Necessities’ chapter. Both within the 2011 e-book: Church Marketing Manual for the Digital Age (2nd ed) by Bryan Foster.

Regular Weekly Publication

Regular weekly publication is needed for best success. Regularity rules!

The readership should often be expanded to church schools and other interested parishes and even to other willing sources e.g. parent and school businesses for display in reception rooms, offices, etc.

The parish’s website needs to be updated weekly with each e-newsletter uploaded to it. A collection of the year’s i-newsletters on the website is appreciated by many parishioners and others wanting to get an overview of the year’s progress.

The e-newsletter would be either emailed to all interested parishioners and others as per a developed database and / or placed on the website as an i-newsletter. I would suggest both as people are more likely to read the email sent to them. Having the website archive as a backup helps considerably for people checking for previous e/i-newsletters / news, etc.

Other sections covered in this chapter include:

Professional e-Newsletter / i-Newsletter

Photos

e-Newsletter / i-Newsletter Homepage +

Production In-house or Outsourced

Effectiveness

Brevity Rulz

AdvertizingLayout Development

Other articles on this website of similar interest include:

Funding Challenges for Church Marketing

Church and Parish Marketing Necessities

Church Marketing Resources and Production

Church Marketing Manual... Contents Pages

The 'The e-Newsletter and i-Newsletter for Church Marketing' blog post written by Bryan Foster, author of Church Marketing Manual for the Digital Age (2nd ed),
- the paperback and ebook manual for Church communications and marketing
personnel - 304 pages of easy to read and implement summarized
points, which allow for a considerably large number of quality stategies and examples to be
detailed
and
available for church marketing personnel - with copyright
remaining GDPL. Book available from Amazon.com and Createspace.com

“
Anyone who is interested in developing a successful school marketing plan will find an excellent and user friendly resource in - School Marketing Manual for the Digital Age (3rd ed), written by Bryan Foster.
The wealth of experience, knowled..”